Put Your Hope In God

Psalm 42:1-11 and Psalm 43:1-5

Title: “Put Your Hope in God”

Subject: How does Korah deal with the existential loss of God’s presence?

Complement: with lament, memory and hope.

Exegetical Idea: The apparent absence of God’s presence causes Korah to lament, remember and hope.

Idea: “Put your hope in God.”

Psalm 42 - For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God

under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise

among the festive throng.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love,

at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?”

10 My bones suffer mortal agony

as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43

1 Vindicate me, my God,

and plead my cause

against an unfaithful nation. (resulting in exile?)

Rescue me from those who are

deceitful and wicked.

2 You are God my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

3 Send me your light and your faithful care,

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy mountain, (Jerusalem)

to the place where you dwell.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God, my joy and my delight.

I will praise you with the lyre,

O God, my God.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

1. Trouble In The World –

o Pandemic stress/mental health/emotional health issues.

o Rising mental health concerns

o See stats...

o Alone-ness... Loneliness /isolation/ not social distance but physical distance!

o Absence of in-person church community

? Absence of togetherness/celebration

Spiritual drift?

are we Turning the church from community into a commodity?

...I’m also mindful of the Personal struggles of God’s people...

? Sickness

? Marriage troubles

? The cloud of the pandemic

? The vaccine distribution

? When can we travel?

? When can we hug one another...?

? Loneliness...

? Separated from loved ones

o At least we have the phone and the screen...

? And it's everywhere.. it's global

? So people are dealing with grief and loss on a scale we haven’t seen in decades? ... {our lifetime}

? For some Perspective...compare...

o 75 million died in WW2

o To date we have 2.5 million deaths from COVID-19

Questions remain...

? When will church return to “normal” ... when will the family of God pack out the house?

? When can we lay hands on the sick?

? When can we gather at funerals and weddings?

It's enough for you to wonder – where is God?

? We try to make sense of it... what is God saying to us?

? Are we in the final chapter of human history?

...“In times like these we need savior; in times like these we need an anchor – be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid rock.”

2. Trouble/Struggle In The Bible – v. 1-3

First stanza:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One